The Return of an Era
by AwesomeFanFictionAuthor
Summary: I got randomly inspired to write this. A year after all of the Lyoko adventures are over Franz Hopper decides to show up. What does his presence mean for the gang? What old memories will he dig up? What truths will he reveal? Rated T for safeness.
1. The Man in the Forest

**I own who I own, no more, no less. Enjoy the story, do not distress**

**I can make a rhyme anytime :33**

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><p>"Who is this guy?"<p>

"I don't know, I just found him laying here."

"Can I poke him with a stick?"

"Sure, I don't see why not."

"Cool." The two boys were speaking with thick German accents, and well, in German. They were in the middle of the Black Forest where they'd found a middle aged man unconscious under a tree who was currently being poked with a stick by the second boy.

"You think we should show this to Ulrich?" The first of the boys said.

"Yeah, sure..." The second said absentmindedly while poking the man's cheek with the stick.

"Hey, stop it, will you, before you poke his eyes out." The first boy snapped at the second.

"But it's so much fun."

"Felix, put the stick down right now before I tell mother!" Felix dropped the stick and pouted.

"I thought you said I could poke him, Simon..."

"Yeah, but not in the face, you could stab his brains out or something!"

"Is he even alive?" The young Felix said, somewhat trembling, and examined the figure laying before them. It was that of a middle aged man with dark gray hair and a beard donned in a burgundy turtleneck, black pants, and the shredded remains of what used to be brown shoes. What was showing of him was littered with scratches and bruises and dirt, his breathing was somewhat shallow. For a man his age he was lean and looked rather limber even athletic. Simon knelt down by the man and checked his pulse.

"He's alive alright." Simon said. "I definitely think we should show Ulrich, though, he'd know what to do. You go get him, I'll keep watch."

"Ok." Felix replied obediently to his older brother then walked off.

Meanwhile at the Stern residence Ulrich was chopping wood.

"My only vacation and I get to spend it doing chores..." He mumbled in French, making sure to be quiet enough so that nobody inside could hear him. His grandparent's house was a strictly German household and if he spoke any other language his grandmother would lash at him, but he did so prefer the tongue he spoke at school with his good buddies.

"Hey Ulrich." A small voice said behind him, startling him slightly, though he didn't show it. He didn't need to turn around, it was a voice he knew far too well.

"Go away, Felix. You've annoyed me enough for one summer." Ulrich said.

"What?" Felix questioned. Ulrich quickly realized his mistake in having continued using French when all the little boy knew was German, so he repeated himself in said language.

"But this is really important!" Felix protested.

"Important like the anthill was important, or maybe more like those rhinestones you said were buried treasure?" Ulrich's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"More important than all of those two combined! Me and Simon found it in the forest and you gotta come quick!"

"Listen, Felix, why don't you just run off with your brother and go play with whatever thing you found before I get yelled at again. You don't need to get me involved in every little thing you do, ya know."

"I'm being serious." Felix said in a small voice that had never sounded more serious in his life and tugged gently at Ulrich's arm. Ulrich sighed.

"Fine, if it'll get you off my back, I'll go see what it is."

"Yay, he's coming!" Felix instantly perked up and snickered, amused that his act had worked, Ulrich groaned as he was dragged into the forest by the eager boy.

Simon looked in the direction his brother had run off in then back at the man then back in the direction.

"How long does it take to get someone." He said impatiently. As if one cue, Felix and Ulrich came running into view.

"So Simon found him and then I started poking him with a stick and Simon told me to stop or he'd tell mother and...Oh, hi Simon."

"Hey Felix."

"So where is this guy you two were talking about?" Ulrich questioned. Simon got out of the way and Ulrich's eyes fell upon the man in question.

"...No way..." He whispered, instantly recognizing the man as Franz Hopper, who he and his friends had seen killed the year before. After that registered, he noticed what a bad shape Franz was in. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket.

"Either of you have a water bottle?" Ulrich asked. Simon took out a large water bottle from the backpack he was wearing.

"Mother made us bring it so we wouldn't get dehydrated." He said.

"Right, give it here." Ulrich said. Simon handed Ulrich the water bottle which he unscrewed and poured some water onto the handkerchief. He began to clean Franz's wounds so that they would not become infected. In his mind he kept asking himself _"Is that him? Is that really him? But he died, we watched it, how did he survive? How did he get here?"_ He wiped a wound on Franz's forehead. _"Didn't Franz have glasses?"_ Ulrich asked himself, but concluded they must have been shattered in the process of whatever made him look this way. Ulrich started to clean a wound dead center on his forehead when Franz stirred. The other two boys jumped, having been watching closely. Suddenly Franz opened his eyes and jumped up. His eyes had this sort of wild glint and a singular thought raced through his mind. _Destroy Xana._ He ran off with more speed than any of them would have thought possible for his age. The two young boys just stared after him while Ulrich got his phone and dialed the familiar number. After the dial tone went off a few times voice mail picked up.

_"Hey, This is Jeremie Belpois. I can't come to the phone right now but please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."_ The phone beeped.

"Hey, Jeremie. It's Ulrich...we have a problem..."

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><p><strong>Please to be reviewing ^^<strong>


	2. Teleportation

**Ohaaaaiiiii gggguuuuuuyyyyysssssss sup? How ya doin? this is the new chapter of Return of an Era. I own Simon and Felix, nothin else.**

**Also, if any of you want to draw some fanart for any of my OCs that would EPIC because I kinda can't draw too well, I'll put it on my facebook wall with credit to the artist, so yea, if you could that'd be awesome :33**

**Ok enjoy the story**

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><p>Somewhere in southern France Jeremie was enjoying summer vacation for the first time since Xana had come into his life. He was spending it with Aelita at his family's summer home and they were currently swimming. Jeremie had just made it across the entire pool in a matter of seconds, swimming being the only sport Jeremie was any good at. He turned to Aelita and explained the mathematics to streamline with as little water resistance as possible. This impressed her more than the actual feat of athleticism.<p>

They were in the pool, so Jeremie didn't have his phone on him, so he didn't hear it ring when Ulrich called.

Back in the forest, Ulrich hung up, slightly irritated.

"Of course he doesn't answer..." he muttered under his breath.

"Who doesn't answer? Who was that guy, Ulrich? You look like you know him. Ulrich?" Felix nudged, poking Ulrich.

"People."

"What people?" but Felix's words fell on deaf ears as Ulrich dialed Yumi's number. Thankfully, she actually picked up.

_"Hello?"_

"Oh, hi, Yumi, you actually picked up."

_"Hey, Ulrich, what's up?" _she asked, being able to pick up the urgency in his voice. Simon and Felix perked up, they didn't understand the strange language Ulrich was using but they did hear "Yumi."

"Hey Ulrich are you talking to Yumi?"

"Isn't that the girl you draw in your diary all the time?"

"I heard him say he loves her when he dosed off under the tree once!"

"YUMI, ULRICH'S IN LOVE WITH YOU!" Ulrich's face turned bright red.

"HEY, SHUT UP, WILL YOU! THE TWO OF US ARE JUST VERY GOOD FRIENDS!" He snapped in German, the brothers whimpered, cowering from him. Ulrich sighed and switched to French, speaking to Yumi, "Just a sec..." Then he turned to the boys. "Listen, this is really important, just calm down and let me talk to my friends, ok?"

Felix walked over to Ulrich and gave him an innocent hug.

"I'm sorry, Ulrich..."

"Yea, me too." Simon said, looking at his feet...he noticed something shiny at the edge of his vision.

"Ok I forgive you." Ulrich said, then went back to his phone. "Hey again, Yumi." On the other end of the line he could hear Yumi laughing.

_"Interesting friends you got there, what were they saying?"_

"Uh...nothing..." Ulrich blushed once more.

_"Right, well what did you call to tell me?"_

"Huh...tell you...? OH YEAH!" Ulrich said, momentarily forgetting, then he regained his thoughts and sobered considerably. "Yumi there's a big problem." Yumi's eyes widened, her mind racing to the assumed problem.

_"Xana..."_

"No, not that, at least I don't think so. My neighbors, you just heard them, they found Franz Hopper in the middle of the forest."

_"Wait, Franz Hopper?"_

"Yeah, he's alive, apparently. He looked all busted up and when he woke up he took off running."

_"Weird..."_

"Yeah, and I tried calling Jeremie but he wouldn't pick up."

_"Ok, well, I'll try calling him, I'd try to get us all back to the supercomputer, you know that's where Franz's gonna go."_

"Right...If I can somehow sneak away from my family."

_"I'm sure you can, keep me posted."_

"Ok." Ulrich hung up. His mind set to work on the problem at hand, how to leave to go back to school without getting killed by his dad. Then again he was at people's houses days at a time and nobody asked questions, it was just normal. As long as he was there on Sunday, it'd be fine...or so he hoped.

"Hey, I found something." Simon said. Ulrich turned to see him and Felix staring at a circular metal gadget with a neon blue panel in the center.

"What's that?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know, it was just laying here."

"Simon, your so good at finding things!" Felix smiled at his brother. Ulrich had to agree to this, once when he'd lost his phone Simon had found it even though it had been buried by a dog.

"I wonder what it does..." Simon wondered aloud. The two boys looked at Ulrich expectantly.

"I don't know, but right now I need to call Odd's house." Felix pressed the panel as Ulrich said "Odd's house" and immediately the three boys were enveloped in a neon blue sphere, and disappeared.

Odd sat under a tree in his huge backyard in Italy sketching his friends fighting on Lyoko against a couple of Tarantulas. Honestly, he still missed the adventure, though they were a lot safer this way. He kept the memory alive through drawings. He just finished drawing Ulrich having stabbed a Tarantula and moving to the next one when he saw a bright flash of light. He looked up and saw Ulrich with two other small boys.

"Well what do ya know, I'm magical!" Odd exclaimed in French.

"Huh...wha...what are we doing here?" Ulrich asked in German.

"I guess that's what this thing does." Simon said, staring at what was apparently a teleportation device.

"Come again good buddy?" Odd said, only knowing very minimal German.

"I said I don't know how we got here."

"Ulrich, the thingy brought us here!" Felix said excitedly.

"Oh, that metal thing brought us." Ulrich explained to Odd.

"Just couldn't stay away from Odd the Magnificent, eh?" He joked.

"Actually, we came by accident, guess cause I said "Odd's house" and he pressed the button." Ulrich pointed at Simon.

"Yeah, who are those guys?" Odd asked.

"Neighbors. Very annoying neighbors. Anyways I gotta tell you something."

"I'm all ears."

"Franz Hopper turned up in the forest. We don't know what's up but we're gonna meet up at school, he's bound to go there, and figure out what's up." Odd was silent for a second, looking down at his picture, then slowly his lips turned into a broad smile.

"Let's do this!" He exclaimed, jumping from his sitting position and fistpumping. Then he got on his cellphone.

"Mom, dad, I'm gonna be spending some time away from home, I don't know when I'll be back but I'll keep you posted. Bye." Odd turned back to Ulrich.

"There, now I can come with you."

"What are those two talking about?" Felix asked.

"I don't know, Felix." Simon replied.

"We're going to France to learn about the man in the forest." Ulrich explained.

"Can we come with you?" Simon asked.

"No." Was Ulrich's curt response.

"Please."

"No."

"PPPPPLLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSEEEE."

"...Fine you can tag along but if you give us any trouble you're going right back home!"

"YAAAAAAAAY!" They both screamed.

"What's with the excitement?" Odd asked, chuckling a bit.

"I'm letting them tag along with us." Ulrich explained.

"Oh, ok. Well let's go." Odd said. "I mean what are we waiting for?"

"Nothing I guess, but how should we get there?" Ulrich asked.

"The same way you got here, of course. We teleport."

"Oh true."

"Let the little kid do it." Odd smiled at Simon and Felix, he knew what it was like to be the little one. Ulrich turned to Felix.

"Hey buddy." he said in German. "Would you say 'Renault Factory, Paris, France' and press the button?" Felix nodded enthusiastically and did as he was asked. Once again they vanished in an orb of neon blue, this time landing exactly where Felix had said, the factory.

Back in the Black Forest Franz had stopped his feverish running, he was exhausted and had stopped for water from a river and nuts in a nearby tree. He took a deep breath, his wits not quite about him, but his mind was clear enough to think somewhat rationally. He checked his pocket for the teleporter that had brought him there...it was gone.

"What, where is it?" He said, hearing his own voice for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. He checked his other pocket, it wasn't there either. He patted himself for any sign of it but it was gone. A panicked look came across his face, if he had lost the teleporter...He ran back the way he had come from, keeping his eyes on the ground for signs of the missing device. Finally he came back to the spot where he had teleported to...the device wasn't there, neither were the kids that had been here...he could figure out the rest. He let out a yell and smashed his head into the tree. He'd have to get there by foot.

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><p><strong>So review please ^^<strong>

**Also fanart, ya know, if ya wanna, It'd be epic.**

**Also visit my facebook pages and deviantART accounts, on my profile page.**


	3. A Touch of Insanity

**Hey, I forgot about this story, but then I remembered, so here's an update. I own Simon and Felix but that's pretty much it.** **MoonScoop owns the rest, enjoy!**

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><p>Jeremie and Aelita toweled off. They had had a fun day of swimming. Jeremie's cellphone buzzed, Yumi was calling. Jeremie picked up his phone and saw that there were about a dozen missed calls from Ulrich and three for Yumi. He hadn't seen his phone like that since...He picked up the phone.<p>

"Hello?"

_"Finally! Jeremie, Ulrich called. He found Franz Hopper in the woods. We're all meeting up at the factory. Sorry to ruin your vacation, but-"_

"No no, it's fine. We'll...meet you there. We can get there in an hour or two. See ya there."

_"Ok." _Yumi hung up.

"Ulrich found Franz..." Jeremie said. Aelita's eyes widened.

"My father? But he died..."

"Ulrich says he's seen otherwise." The couple went up to Jeremie's father.

"Hey champ, had a good swim?"

"Yeah, dad. Hey, I left some important stuff in my dorm, could you drive us there?"

"Sure, let me go get my things."

Meanwhile Yumi had gotten out of the house and went to the Factory to check on things. There seemed to be a large energy disturbance on the power grid from a few hours ago, and a much smaller one from a few minutes ago. The two disturbances had similar readings. There was another one that appeared just then, nearly identical to the smaller one. She stared at the data but couldn't make sense of it.

"Is that Yumi, Ulrich?" Felix asked really loudly.

"She's pretty, I can see why you like her." Simon told Ulrich. Ulrich blushed and Yumi looked up, raising an eyebrow. She had no clue what they had said, but judging by Ulrich's blushing and Odd's laughter, she got the drift and blushed slightly, herself. Then she did a double take.

"Wait, how did you guys get here so fast?" She asked.

"Teleportation, of course!" Odd exclaimed, taking the teleporter from Felix and handing it to Yumi. She examined it.

"...This isn't phasing me...I've been around Lyoko for too long." Yumi said somewhat jokingly. "Ulrich, you brought your neighbors?" she asked, looking at Simon and Felix.

"Heh, they're the ones that got us here." Ulrich said.

"Where did you get this anyway?" Yumi asked.

"Right by where Franz was in the Black Forest." Ulrich replied.

"Whatcha doin anyways?" Simon asked, Ulrich automatically translated the German into French.

"Trying to figure out what this means." Yumi said, pointing to the screen. She had tried to answer in German, using what she had learned from Ulrich over the years, but she failed pretty badly at it. Ulrich laughed and translated it correctly to the boys. Odd just looked back and forth like this whole language barrier deal was a game of tennis.

"Why can't they talk the same as us?" Felix asked.

"They're from a different part of the world. People talk different in different parts of the world." his brother replied. The three older ones ignored them.

"So now all we're missing is Mr. and Mrs. Einstein. Where are they, anyways?" Odd asked.

"On their way here, it'll be an hour or two, tops." Yumi responded.

"What do you think we should do in the mean time." Ulrich asked. Yumi and Odd looked at each other for a second, then Odd spoke.

"Teach those two some French!" he pointed to the German brothers.

Over the next hour and a half they taught Simon and Felix a sort of pidgin language of French and German. Usually the brothers wouldn't pay much attention to something being taught, but learning to make sense of the strange words these people said was fascinating, like talking in code. The older ones couldn't entirely understand the boys, but they were a lot closer.

The elevator went down, the doors opened, and there were Jeremie and Aelita.

"Hello!" The brothers said in French, amused that they could.

"Uh...hi?" Jeremie replied. "Who are they..."

"We're Ulrich's neighbors!" Felix said.

"Ulrich's what?" Aelita asked.

"My neighbors, Simon and Felix. They found this and brought us here, it's a transporter or something." Ulrich said, pointing to the boys in turn and then handing Jeremie the device.

"There were some weird energy disturbances on the power grid, they might have been caused by it." Yumi explained.

"Give me the chair." Jeremie said, he put down the hot chocolate he'd been drinking as Yumi got up and he sat down in his chair. "And give me that." Yumi handed him the teleporter.

Jeremie typed quickly, opening various windows and doing scans and the like.

"Ok, these two smaller ones were definitely caused by teleportation...This bigger one...it's similar...the device was used but there was also a huge discharge of energy that went off with it. I can't tell what made it..." Jeremie said.

"An energy disturbance...That would probably be...me!"

A voice yelled from above, it spoke in French. The kids looked up to see Franz Hopper at the top of the room on the ladder that went from the factory floor to the supercomputer room. He was in bad shape, BAD shape, worse than before. He was breathing heavily and highly fatigued, he looked as though he might collapse any minute.

He did collapse, let go of the ladder and fell to the floor. Aelita immediately dived for him.

"DADDY!" She screamed. She was able to catch his head but the rest of his body fell with a thud. He stirred and laughed slightly manically.

"Daddy...he really has you going, doesn't he." Franz murmured.

"What, who are you talking about?" Aelita said, full of worry. Franz jumped up and laughed like a complete maniac.

"XANA OF COURSE!" He yelled, then got all quiet. "...Xana...we're all doomed..."

"Franz, Xana is dead. You just need a-a good rest!" Jeremie said, more than a little freaked out.

"DEAD? DEAD? YOU'RE ALL FOOLS! DEAD? !" He laughed like a madman and it was a wonder all of Paris couldn't hear Franz.

Something broke in him, he fell unconscious.

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><p><strong>This is short and it bothers me, but oh well. Yay, making Franz completely nuts, got some cool stuff planned for this, so I'll go write Kitten now.<br>**

**So um, people who want me to update Code Revenge, I need help, riddle me this. Morgan needs a friend to keep her cover (idea she got from invader zim) but instead of having an annoying idiot be her friend, she wants to have someone actually useful. I already know who it will be, that's not what I need help with. She will choose someone that has an excellent memory and never forgets a face. Why does she need someone like that though, can't she kinda already do that? I can't change the person or the skill they have, it's already been written. Please, please, help me think of a reason she would need someone special to remember stuff especially faces for her. I can't start writing an update of Code Revenge til I have a reason.  
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**Also reviews for this, reviews for this are good.  
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